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The ASCOM Initiative ASCOM Equipment Acquisition
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Tareq Abdulla avatar
Tareq Abdulla avatar
Hi all,

I want to know what everyone here installed in their PCs to use it for astrophotography except processing programs?

Do you use the computer to do all your capturing such as DSO and planetary or you have separated computers for each? 

I am talking about Windows/Linux computers, Mini PC in specific, not ASIAir or RPi4 and another by astro brands.


I am starting my new computer for astro by installing ASCOM always first, after that the drivers of equipment, then what else you suggest out of many? PHD2? Sharpcap? ….???
Mike H - Sky View Observatory avatar
Mike H - Sky View Observatory avatar
Dedicated computer in my backyard observatory running Pegasus Astro Unity, Ioptron Commander, PHD2, NINA and Stellarium. NINA is great acquisition software. I used Astrophotography Tool for a couple of years but made the change to NINA and never looked back. 

Mike
Andrew Ford avatar
Andrew Ford avatar
I run my scope with NINA/PHD2 on a laptop, and do all my post-processing on my desktop (AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 64GB RAM, and an RTX3090) with PixInsight and Photoshop. 

I use Stellarium with the Occulars plugin to plan camera framing (or NINA's framing assistant if I am doing mosaics)
Well Written Helpful
Tareq Abdulla avatar
Tareq Abdulla avatar
Mike H - Sky View Observatory:
Dedicated computer in my backyard observatory running Pegasus Astro Unity, Ioptron Commander, PHD2, NINA and Stellarium. NINA is great acquisition software. I used Astrophotography Tool for a couple of years but made the change to NINA and never looked back. 

Mike

Nice, those what i added in my old computers also, so wanted to know what else i can add in my new ones, i am trying to keep my new mini PC as clean and as minimum software so it won't get slow or issues of drivers and unused/unnecessary apps, for example i also used APT and Nebulosity and Siril few times, then i never used them again anymore, no need to add them in my new computers then.
Tareq Abdulla avatar
Tareq Abdulla avatar
Andrew Ford:
I run my scope with NINA/PHD2 on a laptop, and do all my post-processing on my desktop (AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 64GB RAM, and an RTX3090) with PixInsight and Photoshop. 

I use Stellarium with the Occulars plugin to plan camera framing (or NINA's framing assistant if I am doing mosaics)

I mentioned that processing is not included, i do this in a separate capable computers, while my two mini PCs are like light specs for only capturing data, so i want to know all software needed for capture and acquisition either still for DSO or video for planetary, nothing about processing, but i always start by installed ASCOM as this the foundation, then my equipment drivers, after that which i should install first or it doesn't matter the order?!!!
Tareq Abdulla avatar
Tareq Abdulla avatar
By the way, i am planning to use my two Mini PCs for my two mounts Skywatcher AZ-GTi, this mount i can control it via Synscan on my mobile, but i bought 2 tablets which is bigger screen and i can use it nicely, but i don't know if i should control the mount via WIFI or better to control it from PC, for my old mount AZ-EQ6 i always control by computer using EQMOD, kind of the wireless has more headache for me than direct control from computer.